The Mageean Cup is awarded annually to the winners of the Ulster Colleges' Senior Hurling Championship. This iconic trophy was presented to Ulster Colleges in 1963 by the staff and students of Dromantine College, Newry in memory of Most Reverend Daniel Mageean, Bishop of Down and Connor (1929 – 1962). St Mary's CBGS Belfast are the cup specialists with 28 titles. The cup has spent most of its time in the Belfast school with only St Patricks Maghera challenging their dominance. Dromantine College was an SMA seminary (Society of African Missions), and is now a well known Retreat Centre. The Dromantine seminarians actually played an Ulster Colleges’ hurling select in a challenge game in 1963, probably to mark the presentation of the new trophy to the Ulster Colleges Council. From its formation in 1928, it is apparent that the activities of theUlster Colleges Council reflected the fact that football had an appeal throughout the province of Ulster while interest in hurling had a narrower geographical focus. The diocesan colleges were boarding schools which drew their students in the main from their own dioceses, so those colleges were consequently football orientated and were focussed on the MacRory Cup. St Malachy's College Belfast was the only one with a strong interest in hurling. On the other hand, the day schools were run by the Christian Brothers, many of whom came from strong hurling counties and backgrounds in the South. In the 1930s Abbey CBS represented Down in inter-county hurling at minor level, winning a couple of provincial titles and appearing in All-Ireland semi-finals. St Mary's CBS, Belfast had both this encouragement from the Brothers and an intake that was from local clubs which played hurling, while there was occasionally strong hurling involvement from Omagh CBS, Armagh CBS and St Patrick's Downpatrick. After the war, the establishment of a second boarding school in Down and Connor at Garron Tower (St MacNissi's College) in 1951 illustrated the dilemma facing the development of hurling. Hurling was mainly played by the day pupils, while football was the sport for the boarders. St MacNissi's won the inaugural Mageean Cup in 1963-64, a competition which included St Mary's CBS, St Malachy's College and St Michael's College, Omeath. Eddie Donnelly was a key member of that team. Thereafter, St Mary's CBS monopolised the Cup for the next couple of decades, during which both St Malachy's and St Michael's faded